June 21, 2026 "The God Who Does All Things Well" (Mark 7:31-37)

Pastor Jeff Manning continues the series, "Mark: Living With Gospel Urgency."

Transcript

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So, my title this morning is The God Who Does All Things Well. The God Who Does All Things Well. So imagine never hearing another sound. Instantly, your hearing is completely gone. You hear nothing. You never hear another song like we just heard. You never hear birds chirping again. You hear no more words of encouragement. You never hear anybody else say, I love you. Oh, and then imagine you're unable to speak. You've got thoughts. There are feelings that you would like to express, but you're not able verbally. You can no longer talk. Every conversation you have is extremely difficult. Every interaction is frustrating. You're cut off from so much of what makes relationships possible that allows them to thrive. You can't talk and you can't hear. Imagine the isolation that it brings. Conversations are happening all around you, but you don't know what's being said. You cannot participate in them. Connections become hard, life becomes smaller. And in Mark chapter 7, we're encountering a man that may have been deaf and mute, or at least almost completely mute. He's got a severe speech impediment, possibly all his life, but we know for at least a sizable portion of his life. And so as we pick up the storyline of Christ as it's being revealed in Mark's gospel, we're going to see Jesus is on his way to where this man is. And this man, this man who's deaf and who has a speech impediment, he's got some friends who love him enough, and they can hear, they've heard Jesus is in town, and they're going to bring their friend to Jesus. Verse 31 of Mark 7. Then he, Jesus, returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis. Now, I I think was it last Sunday or the Sunday before? I think it was last Sunday I showed you a map that talked about how Tyre, you'll see up there in the top left corner. Jesus in Mark 7 goes into Gentile territory. He is getting away from some of persecution, if you will, some of the hardships that were being brought about by the religious establishment. And now he has he has left Greater Israel. He's left Jerusalem and he's up in what some would call pagan territory. And now we're told that Jesus is going to leave there. He's making his way to Decapolis, which literally means ten cities. It's that whole region made up of ten different, you know, smaller communities. But he's going to go in a roundabout kind of way. He's going to go up and spend time in Sidon, and then he's going to make his way down into the Decapolis region. And so the name Decapolis again means ten cities. And this is not the first time Jesus has been there. If you were with us several weeks ago when we were in Mark chapter 5, that's when Jesus, as far as the scriptures tell us, first went to Decapolis. It was there where a man was possessed with who knows how many legions. That man, when Jesus asked him his name, the demonic voice speaking as one for all that were in this man said, Legion, for we are many. And if you'll recall, Jesus cast that demon out of that man. Read with me now, verse chapter uh Mark chapter 5, verse 20. It says, And he, the man who had been delivered from the demon possession, he went away and began to proclaim in the decapitalist how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled. So, folks, you you cannot underestimate the value and the impact made by a consistent testimony of somebody whose life's been changed like that man's. And I could go around. Rich and Becky Shastin are often in the 9 o'clock and the 10:30 service, but man, the life change we've seen in them, Dennis, the life change in you, Randy Pritchard, he'll probably be sitting right about up there in the in the uh the 1030 service, life change with him. I can see when he came to the altar at our old church and got saved, Tim DeCreasy. Man, the life change in old Tim, and I could just go around. And when your life has been changed by Jesus, you've got a testimony that in some cases people will listen to a whole lot quicker than they will me from a preaching perspective. Now I've got a story too, but sometimes God has brought some of you out of such depths of despair that, man, I'm telling you, your life change, your story will attract people, and that's exactly what we see happening here. So when word comes that Jesus is back, this same Jesus that did this life change in this man, when that happened, man, folks are coming. Notice with me, Matthew's commentary on this, Matthew 15, verse 30. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others. And they put them at his feet and he healed them. Now, Matthew zooms out and gives us the big picture of all that Jesus did. Mark will zoom in, and Mark, he's the only gospel writer who will focus on one man. And just let that be a reminder that while there will be 800, 850 or more people overall in our services today, Jesus sees each one of you as if you were the only person on the planet. There is individuality in the Lord's attention. And so Matthew tells us they glorified the God of Israel. Mark will tell us in a few moments, they were astonished at what Jesus does to this deaf and mute man. And therefore, my purpose in preaching for the balance of my sermon is to share with you four reasons to praise and glorify our Lord. Four reasons that your heart should just overflow with praise and adoration and worship of our Lord. Number one, the first reason to praise the Lord, to glorify him, is because Jesus is accessible. Jesus is accessible. Verse 32, and they, unnamed friends, they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. So, folks, just know this during Jesus' earthly ministry, people could come to him. He was accessible. Jesus did not stay in some ivory tower, he did not occupy some glorious throne. Oh, by the way, make an appointment. Call my secretary if you want to see me. No, unlike the Pharisees who wanted to be off to themselves, did not want to mingle with the common folk, Jesus is there. He's available. He was accessible. On rare occasions only when he was absolutely fatigued, did he get away from the crowds? Not that he didn't care for them. In his humanity, he just needed a break. He needed a breather. He needed to commune with his father. With those rare exceptions, Jesus could be accessed. People could be brought to him. Most all of you are familiar with those four friends, also unnamed. And by the way, any number of you might feel like you're an unnamed person. You don't have a desk here at the church. You're not a part of the praise team. You don't give ministry highlights. You're a nobody. Nobodies do incredible stuff for the Lord. And there's a whole lot of unnamed people in our Bibles that the Lord used mightily. So these four unnamed friends brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus. You remember that story, right? And when they get there, they're a little bit late. I mean, they they they it they were slowed down because of carrying their friend. When they get there, the house is full. That didn't stop them. They go up on the house, tear open the roof, lower their friend down, and the dirt and the debris, I can just see those little clean, little tidy uh Pharisees like, what is going on? Do you think Jesus was perturbed? Not a bit. Not a bit. And Jesus looked into that man and he spoke truth to him that changed his life and saved his soul. Here in our text, some more unnamed friends, filled with compassion, brought a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. Now, we don't know whether he was born that way or if he had some kind of a disease or some kind of an accident. We don't know. If he was born that way, you would expect maybe for him to be mute, because as some of you know, if a person has never ever heard, unless they go through some kind of extraordinary, lengthy speech pathology, they're not able to talk. But the fact that Scripture talks about it as a speech impediment means that maybe his deafness occurred sometime shortly after being able to hear sounds. We don't know. All we know is the man could not hear and he could not speak clearly. Now, it's hard to imagine all the challenges this man had faced. If you can't hear or speak, uh it's difficult to mingle with others. Your social life almost shrivels up, non-existent. Um the closest I can relate to this is a first cousin of mine, Bobby Jr. Um Bobby Jr. was uh one of the sons of one of my dad's brothers, Bobby. And um Bobby Jr. uh was deaf. Um he he went to the um School of the Deaf in Morgington, North Carolina. I I didn't get to interact with Bobby Jr. much because he was always there at the school. He wore these big old hearing aids. And I I can I can I'm picturing my I can picture myself right now at my Aunt Lina's house. And uh Bobby Jr. is sitting on the couch and and he's trying to communicate, and but you man, it was hard to understand what he was saying, and then he would, you know, well, he had learned sign language, but I hadn't. And so it was so hard. My heart just always bled for Bobby Jr. Because he was he wasn't able to interact with people and have all the friends that I've been able to have through the years. If the man in our story was married, if he was married, he had no idea what his wife's voice sounded like. He has no idea what his mom and dad's voice sounds like. He didn't know the difference between fire crackling and crickets chirping, he didn't know the difference between water roaring and rain falling. He can't understand the audible difference between laughing and crying. He's never heard a song sung or a crowd roar. And for the man in our story, there's also the humiliation that would come because, especially in the first century, he'd be thought stupid. What's wrong with you, boy? What's wrong with you? Can't you hear? Why won't you talk to me? You can just imagine the humiliation the experience. Plus, some would point a finger and say, Mm-hmm. You did something. You sinned, you did something to bring this on you. That would be a consensus on the part of some. And some would even say he was demon-possessed. You know how it is. It's the same in our day. All kinds of opinions, some of them just as ludicrous as the day is long. Life was harder for this man than maybe we might initially think. But he did have some people that loved him. And they brought him to Jesus. And I'm grateful that as a society and as a nation, we are becoming, I think, more and more sensitive to the challenges faced by men and women with physical limitations. I think it is absolutely appropriate that we've got handicapped parking spaces across the front, across this side. And we, you know, at the at the suggestion of some of our wonderful people who work with our special needs people, they thought it might be good to have some parking just for our accessible disciples here on the back. It makes it easier for them not to have to go through the crowds. I'm thankful we've got automatic door openers, and most public places have those now. We have vehicles and motorized wheelchairs and other devices. And I think with all of that, it it gets us a little bit closer to the heart of the Lord. I am so thankful for the ministry opportunities our church is providing for people with special needs. Um folks, do you realize that our accessible disciples that uh Julie Brickhouse leads, our Beyond Capernaum ministry that uh Lisa Jordan leads, I mean we are exemplary. Very, very few churches are able to offer what we're able to offer. And the slew of you who help Lisa and or Julie, man, thank you because you're right there where the heart the Lord's heart is. The Lord has a heart for people like that, he has a heart for everybody, but I think you know what I'm trying to say. And I think it's helped us gain a collective heart. I mean, in in the in the 1030s, if if you never come to the 1030 service, you already come just to hear the difference. Um because there'll there'll be there'll be a commotion back there. A couple of weeks, somebody, I I don't know whether he was happy or upset, but he was talking. And I it is painful for me to admit this. Very painful. But 30 years ago, it probably would have frustrated me. 30 years ago, I probably would have kind of thought, I mean, that's a distraction. What are we doing? I'm thankful to hear it. I am thankful to hear it. Um would you pray that the Lord would give you, me, us, a heart in tune with needy people, as Jesus had? So people could come to Jesus. Secondly, people could talk to him. We're told there in the same verse, they begged him to lay his hand on him. Now, the begging here, there's a sense of urgency there. It's almost though if I were to give the Manning uh paraphrase, which means you're going to add some things to it, please, please, please, please, Lord, please, you've got to do something. We we know what you did, we know what you did for Legion. And Lord, would you and and they must have thought that in order for Jesus to to perform the miracle that they're asking him to do, he had to touch him. And of course, we know that wasn't necessary, but that's what they asked. Please, please, please do something. Please touch him. You're our only hope. And folks, we have the wonderful privilege to go to Jesus through prayer. We don't have to get out of our car, we don't have to leave our house, we don't have to go to an altar. You can just, if you know Christ, you can go to him at any time and you can take people to him through prayer, through intercession. The prophet Samuel. Uh, in 1 Samuel chapter 12, verse 23, he said, Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. I wonder how sinful. You see, it's it's sinful to be involved with sexual immorality or drunkenness, etc. But I wonder how sinful some of us might be in not praying for others like we should. God forbid that I should sin in failing to pray for you. People could come to Jesus, they could talk to him. Thoroughly, people could be, people would be loved by him. And this leads to a second major reason to praise the Lord. Not only is Jesus accessible, but he's also merciful. Jesus is merciful. Verse 33. And taking him aside, now Jesus does something a little bit unusual. We're not told why. We can use our sanctified imaginations and and and come up with some reasons, but taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephata, which is Aramaic and it means be opened. So, um however many weeks ago it was when we had the health crisis in the 1030 service, those of you who were in the 1030 service, you'll remember that I I thought the man had died. I really did. And man, we had people pop up from all over the place, uh, ER doctors and EMTs and nurses, and they they initially got him there in the little um aisle. But then once they saw that he was stable, they took him out. I think who in the world would want to have hundreds of gawking eyes on you? So maybe in light of what Jesus is about to do for this man, he says, you know what? Come with me, my friend. We're gonna get away from the crowd. It's gonna be just me and you. Now, the man can't hear, he's got a speech impediment. So Jesus chooses to speak his language. He basically uses sign language, not the official sign language that a few people in our church know, but Jesus puts his fingers in his ears and then tapes them out, and it's as if he's saying, I'm about to change that. And then don't ask me to further explain, but he he spits and then touches that man's tongue and is almost as if he's saying, Don't worry, I'm getting ready to set your tongue free. And then he said, Be open. Instantaneously, the guy's ears were open, he could speak, and um an incredible, miraculous miracle took place. We're also told that Jesus glanced up, and it's almost as though he's looking up as if to say to the man, this is not magic. This is from God, this is from the portal of heaven that this is taking place for you. But notice also that Jesus, when he was looking up into heaven, he sighed. He sighed. That is, he groaned. He he was in agony, it grieved his heart. Here's just another example of what sin in general and the curse against him has brought into the world. There are people like this dear man, and all the stuff that comes with his uh abnormalities. This was a sigh of compassion and sympathy. It reminds me of Jesus' response at Lazarus' tomb. John 11, verse 33, when Jesus saw, that is, he saw Mary, Lazarus' sister, and her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved. He was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. Folks, Jesus was never indifferent to the suffering around him. His heart was always merciful and gentle toward people with disabilities. And may those of us who would like to be used of the Lord in any way at all, may the Lord give us a heart for a hurting humanity, a compassion for hurting humanity. Folks, you know it, but I want to remind you there's a hurting world out there. There are hundreds, thousands of people, and they're hurting for one reason or another. Some may be physical, some may be emotional, some may be psychological. They've been through some stuff, and some of you have. And God help us to have a heart for the hurting. God forbid. God, it's not in my notes, but I had asked the Lord if you want me to say it, bring it to me. And he just did. God forbid that you or I would ever laugh or make fun of somebody's disability. I think you are treading on some. Dangerous ground when you do that. A little boy, he came home from school, and it was pretty obvious to his mom that something was not right. And so the mom said, Son, what what what's wrong? You seem like you're you don't are do you feel okay? He said, Yes, mom, I feel okay. It's just that we found out at school today that Billy's dad died. And his dad was buried yesterday. And the mom said, Well, son, well, I mean, what what did you do? He said, Mom, I just put my head on my desk and I pray I I I cried with Billy. I just cried with him. And folks, sometimes that's that's what the world they don't need your laughter. They need your tears, they need your concern, they need your compassion. Would you pray with me? Break my heart, Lord, for what breaks yours. Break my heart, Lord. Break our heart, Lord, for what breaks yours. No Christian should go through life with dry eyes. You and I need to be like Jesus, who wept over Jerusalem, who wept at Lazarus' grave. You and I need to be like Jeremiah, who, according to 9-1 of his book, oh, that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for my people. A few questions. When was the last time you wept over needy people? When was the last time you wept over your own wayward children? When's the last time you wept over your lost husband? When's the last time you wept over your wife who says or used to say she loved the Lord, but her heart is so far from him? When's the last time you wept over people who don't know Christ and they're on their way to hell in a hurry? Can you can you this is just between you and the Lord, can you honestly say that you are a compassionate person? And if we were to put together some people who know you best, would they agree with your assessment if you say yes? Have you ever wept or been moved in the depths of your soul over the deformed? Have you ever sorrowed over a life devastated by sin? Have you ever tried to do anything about it? When I was preparing for today, I felt the Lord leading me to do something that was going to be just a little unusual. I don't say this pat myself on the back at all. It's the Lord's fault. I just did what I felt like he wanted me to do. Um I mentioned however many weeks ago a friend of mine that I reconnected to at a local sheets, and in the course of conversations found out that he was homeless, and I have learned the story behind all of that and um lives in his truck. And I went up to him this past um, I think it was Thursday. And we've been talking for a little while, and I said, Oh, hey, um, look, man, I can I I don't mean to pry, but can I just ask a question? I said, when's the last when's the last time you had just a good old hot shower? He said, Oh, hot showers aren't a problem. I've got my water jugs, and this time of year, oh, the sun gets them plenty hot. He said, I struggled in the winter. I said, Well, um I said, why don't we circle back then? Maybe in the fall or the winter. Just go to my house, man. Just get a good shower. Are you and I as charitable, merciful, gentle, and caring as our Savior? If you know you're deficient here, as painful as it may be to admit your deficiency, would you pray and again ask the Lord to break your heart for what breaks his? Oh, and Jesus didn't just sigh, he didn't just feel, he acted, he did something. And granted, we can't provide healing, but there's a lot of stuff that we can do. I just mindful right now, JD and some guys, man, they they are continuously building ramps for people. JD, how if you don't mind me asking right here in front of everybody, how old are you? Go ahead. How old are you? 78. And they're building ramps every week. Kent Hughes said, the surest way to calcify the heart is to fail to do something when we feel compassion. Coldness and hypocrisy are the result. Healthy, authentic Christianity is hands-on. It's sleeves rolled up and hands dirty. It's meeting needs, not just sighing over them. Francis Schaefer. He was a leading theologian, pastor, and apologist back in the 70s and 80s. He wrote several books, had a global impact. So Schaefer was interacting with an architect. And I don't know, I tried to figure it out, but I don't know the backstory of, I don't know whether the architect was doing some work for him or if it was just a friendship he was developing, but he was interacting with this architect. This architect was very skeptical of Christianity, might have even been agnostic. Well, another friend of Schaefer's was interacting with the architect. And the architect said, I don't know if what Francis Schaefer is telling me about Christianity is true or not, but I do know this. That man loves me. That man loves me. And I don't know how long it took, but that architect eventually came to saving faith in Jesus. Now, folks, I've asked myself, and I'm asking you now, how many people could say the same thing about you? That man loves me. That woman, I'm gonna tell you what, that woman loves me. That teenager, he or she, man, loves me. May God do such a work in our hearts and lives that we sigh, we weep, and that with compassion we treat people like Jesus did with grace and mercy and with whatever assistance we can. And sometimes, Mr. Billy and Miss Betsy, we were talking about this on Thursday. Sometimes it's hard to know what to do. Mr. Billy was talking about a certain person that they are interacting with and have been for a long time. Mr. Billy, I saw, I saw your chin kind of quiver. I think you came real close to breaking down back in the kitchen, like I've done up here. So may the Lord help us to have a heart like that. A third major reason to praise the Lord, not only is Jesus accessible and merciful, but he's also all-powerful. He's all-powerful. Verse 35. And his ears were open, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly at the command of Jesus. Those ears that had heard no sound for however long, or if ever, and that tongue that had been in chains set free. Oh, and he didn't have to go take speech therapy. He spoke plainly immediately. That's the way the Lord's miracles always were: complete, instantaneous healing. No stuttering, no stammering, just uninhibited, joyful conversation. And I can only imagine that those first words had to have been praise and glory and thanksgiving to his Lord, or at least the Lord. He probably would become his Lord soon thereafter. So can I just show you? It's about a minute and 15 seconds, I think. I'm gonna just show you a video clip that might help us kind of capture the emotions that we probably go. She's getting uh an updated implant.

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There you go. So now technically your device is on.

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But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. You can't condone their disobedience, but you can certainly understand their response. Why, why, why would Jesus tell them, and I've got to hurry, Greg, you're gonna have to just follow along because I'm gonna probably skip some stuff. But um, Jesus for this occasion said, Don't go sharing this everywhere because I don't want people to get the impression that all I am is a healer, a miracle worker. I came to be a savior, and that part of my story hasn't played out yet, so I don't want people to get misconceptions about my ultimate purpose. Think about it. Jesus was the greatest of healers, teachers, and preachers, but he is the one and only Savior. And so he didn't want that message to get mixed up. Okay, one final reason to praise the Lord. Not only is Jesus accessible, merciful, and all powerful, but he is infallible. He is infallible. And I need to hurry, verse 37. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. So the onlookers with sheer astonishment say, He has done all things well. In conjunction with their amazement, and in conjunction with the fact that the Lord in his sovereignty allowed this man to be deaf and mute to begin with, I will argue that indeed Jesus is infallible. All right, remember when Jesus was commissioning Moses to go to the uh to go to Pharaoh and to tell Pharaoh that God said, Let his people go? Remember Moses with his excuse? Let me remind you of that in the Lord's response. Moses said to the Lord, Oh my Oh my Lord, I I'm not eloquent either in the pastoral since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue. Then the Lord said to him, Um, Who made man's mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak. Folks, five words. Five words that for some of you, it could change your life, it could lift your spirits, it could give you the kind of outlook on life that may be unique. Five words. Jesus does all things well. Jesus does all things well. All the time. He never makes mistakes. Even when he allows some people to be handicapped, even when he allows cancer to strike or a tumor to grow. He's infallible. And you and I, with our sin-tainted minds, even though saved and in the process of being sanctified, could never figure out why, why this, why this in our life, why this in my family's life? You just gotta be reminded, God does all things well. James Montgomery Boyce, he was an excellent theologian, Bible teacher, author, and senior pastor of the 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1968 until his death in 2000. So he was diagnosed with cancer. And from the moment of his diagnosis to the moment of his death, with I don't think hardly any signs of being sick, six weeks. Six weeks. So having friends all over, when when they learn that, man, this is terminal and it is coming swiftly, they didn't like it. And when visiting with him, they would kind of maybe express their displeasure. And James Montgomery Boyce said, be at peace about this. God does all things well. And that's the heart of a Bible-believing believer. God does all things well. So may you and I praise and glorify the Lord because He's accessible, merciful, all-powerful, and infallible. He is the God who does all things well. Let's pray. Father. Um thank you, Lord, for meeting with us. Thank you for the sweet presence of your spirit in our service. Lord, I didn't know just how intense your presence would be felt, but I feel like we've all felt the same. And it's more than a feeling, Lord. It is something that has been stirred in our hearts because of Bible truth. And so, Lord, help us to be more and more like you. Help us to be accessible and help us to take people to you and your accessibility. Help us, Lord, to be merciful. Help us to make a difference in people's lives in ways that we can. And Lord, help us to always believe and flesh out this life of ours, knowing that you do all things well. That's my prayer, Lord. I pray it in the lovely name of Jesus. Amen.

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Amen.